Future date refresh routine

Goal: keep show dates fresh without guessing, copying a third-party directory, or publishing stale Event schema dates.

Source order

  1. Official show/promoter site.
  2. Official club or numismatic association site.
  3. Venue or convention-center event calendar.
  4. Official organizer/club/venue Facebook page or event.
  5. State/regional numismatic association calendar.
  6. Credible secondary sources only as leads or corroboration.

Safe publish rules

  • Publish a date only when the source gives a year and the date is future as of the review date.
  • For recurring rules, compute only near-term future dates when the official source clearly states the rule.
  • Keep stable show URLs; log duplicate/imported/date-in-title records for later canonicalization instead of deleting them during a date refresh.
  • Change expired or unconfirmed dates to TBD rather than guessing.
  • Add source_url, last_verified, upcoming_dates, and verification_notes when a source confirms dates.

Report-only checks

  • Run ruby _scripts/show-update-report.rb before and after data updates.
  • Run ruby _scripts/external-source-compare.rb for configured high-value sources.
  • Review tmp/show-url-checks.csv for source failures and stale/blocked domains.
  • Keep third-party directory work report-only unless an official or independent source verifies the date.

Patterns confirmed on 2026-07-13

  • Promoter pages with multiple shows work well as high-value sources: Pacific Expos, Rocky Mountain Expos, America’s Coin Shows, CK Shows, BuxMont, and Antique Coins MN.
  • State/association calendars are useful for clusters: VNA, Numismatists of Wisconsin, MSNS/Michigan Coin Club, CONA, and GNA.
  • Some official sites publish long-range future dates: GNA to 2029, Long Beach to 2027, Denver to 2027, North County Monthly to 2027.
  • Facebook-only, blocked, expired, or no-year pages should stay TBD or be logged for review.

Follow-up buckets

  • Blank-source imported records: find official sources before publishing dates.
  • Duplicate records: map canonical listing vs imported one before renaming/deleting.
  • Secondary-only leads: Waco, Cowtown, Cheyenne, and Fremont need official confirmation before publishing expanded dates.
  • Stale/compromised domains: log and avoid using them as confirmation until manually reviewed.